Resolved questionsThe pronunciation of "v"

How do people in The Netherlands pronounce "v"(in words like "voor" or "vrijdag" or "X. van den Y" for example)?I just started taking Dutch classes a couple of weeks ago and I'm a little bit confused because my teachers told us to pronounce it like an "f"(as in "fun") but on the internet I saw that the proper pronunciation is supposed to be "v"(as in "vanity") and in one of the books I bought it's also pronounced "v".Are both accepted/correct? Does the pronunciation of "v" differ from a region(or a country) to another?Thanks!

Answers

I'm a native Dutch speaker, and I actually haven't ever payed attention to this issue. Now it has come to my attention, I think I can confirm what others say here: That the Dutch "v" is only partly voiced. I think Kuba is right in that you must start with a bit of an "f" sound (unvoiced) then move to the English "v" sound (voiced).

I think that for making the "f" sound, I tend to press my lips tighter than for the start of the of the "v" sound, so the start of the "v" sound is not entirely like an "f".

My best guess is: Start unvoiced, with your lips a tiny bit more apart than for an "f".

I'm not a Dutch, but I was taught to pronounce it like mix of "F" and "V". Not F, not V but something between. It's not good explanation but you can start with something like f and ends with v. Or just take any YouTube video with Dutch alphabet and start to mimick the proper sound.

This is gonna sound wierd, as Ron is a native speaker and i'm not even dutch fluent. But i will have to disagree on what he said about 'similar to english v'. I actually haven't heard any dutchman or belgian pronunce it like an english V. The belgians pronunce it softer, like a normal F (friday - english or romanian => forta) and the dutchmen usually pronunce it somewhere in the middle, but it's still closer, a lot closer to F than to V. Try to pronunce these combinations and you'll get your answer :voor - for - fortavandaag - fals - fabrica-----vorige - vote - voce